While War of Magic has subsequently been greatly improved, Stardock is not convinced that this title, with a 55 metacritic average, can redeem itself. Therefore, rather than tie new Designer/Project Manager Derek Paxton to the previously planned expansions of War of Magic, it was decided to have Derek and his team focus on the creation of Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, a stand alone expansion which will not require users to purchase War of Magic.
As a practical matter, Fallen Enchantress is a new game, one that shares some art assets with War of Magic but little else. The scope of the differences between the two will become very apparent in the early months of 2011. Extensive brainstorming sessions between Derek Paxton (Fall from Heaven), Brad Wardell (Galactic Civilizations), and Jon Shafer (Civilization V) resulted in a complete redesign; combat systems, tactical combat systems, character creation, economic system, game mechanics, etc. are all new.
In addition, unlike War of Magic, Stardock does not plan to make Fallen Enchantress available at retail in order to keep its schedule as flexible as possible.
